This election season, incumbents and challengers alike are mulling how best to curb the violent crime that has the District under siege and adults scared of young people.
That debate continues to take shape inside and outside the John A. Wilson Building as D.C. Councilmember Robert White (D-At large) and Rodney “Red” Grant tout vocational training as a crime prevention tool.
White, a Democrat and two-term council member running for re-election, recently announced three bills he’s introducing to expand vocational training options, connect traumatized youth with mentors, and mandate the monthly release of truancy data.
The introduction of these bills, White said, follows conversations he had with young people across the District who are lamenting, among other troubles, the lack of career advancement options.
“Too often we talk about youth but rarely do we talk to them,” White said. “They told me they don’t have the job opportunities they need to make money. The rise in youth crime is our failure. We have to get a handle on that right now.”
On Feb. 27, White announced his three bills — the Vocational Education for a New Generation Act, the Youth Mentorship Through Community Engagement Act, and the Truancy Reduction for Student Success Act — atop the steps of the Wilson Building in Northwest.
That morning, a bevy of community organizers and workforce development specialists stood with White. They included: Samantha Davis of Black Swan Academy; returning citizen advocate Tony Lewis, Jr.; Scott Goldstein of EmpowerEd; Jenise “Jo” Patterson of Parent Watch, Inc.; and Kunta Bedney, council representative for the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters.
If passed, the Vocational Education for a New Generation Act would expand career and technical education by creating a fund controlled by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE). Vocational programs that receive those funds must provide young people with an industry certification that allows them to enter the job market after graduating high school.
According to the bill, these OSSE funds would also help to ensure that adult learners who left high school can access vocational education programs. White said this bill could be of benefit to existing career and technical education programs.
“Programs that work, we are going to give them more funding and we will expand the programs to meet the market demands,” White said. “We have to do more things.”
Rodney “Red” Grant Positions Himself as Ambassador for Vocational Education
This primary season, White has Grant, Christian Carter Addison, and George Jackson as challengers.
Grant, a comedian and community organizer, counted among those, including White, who unsuccessfully attempted to unseat D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) during her 2022 re-election bid.
In his second citywide election, Grant is centering young people and elders, two of what he calls the District’s most overlooked populations.
Since 2020, Grant’s nonprofit, Don’t Shoot Guns, Shoot Cameras, has provided young people with a stipend while teaching them the basics of filmmaking, and developing their socioemotional skills. In 2021, Don’t Shoot Guns, Shoot Cameras entered a partnership with Ballou STAY High School in Southeast.
Grant said those efforts could have a ripple effect once applied across all District schools. During the earlier part of February, he sat in Room 500 of the Wilson Building as White, and a dozen other council members, delved into a debate about the Secure D.C. Omnibus Amendment Act.
The more punitive elements of the bill, Grant said, could “take us out” and jeopardize any chance of uniting Washingtonians across all eight wards.
If elected, Grant said he would create legislation that expands youths’ access to career and technical education programs.
Currently, he serves as the public relations chair for Vocational Education Saves Lives!, a grassroots campaign launched by Black Women for Justice that heralds vocational education as the ultimate solution to crime.
“We have to rethink the way we legislate. We have to be proactive to keep our youngins out of these systems,” Grant said. “We have to give our young people these opportunities and protect them as a community. We have to become neighbors again. You can heal with love. You can start the flame with change.”
A Lay of the Land in Career and Technical Education
White and Grant’s collective efforts to expand vocational education come just years after Charles Boston, a former State Board candidate and tradesman with experience in workforce development, submitted a ballot measure allowing District students to take fewer traditional credits in exchange for coursework in allied health, agricultural, environmental and professional trades.
Boston’s measure, which the D.C. Board of Elections later deemed unsuitable, also provided schools more flexibility in providing courses and work-based learning experiences for students between the 6th and 12th grades. In a 2021 interview with The Informer, Boston said that, even with the launch of school-based career and technical education programs, the District could do more to expand student access to the vocations.
DCPS students at 18 high schools can currently enroll in career and technical education programs. In total, the public school system offers more than 50 programs with career education pathways. Students complete a three-to-four year course load, in addition to the core curriculum, that culminates in the preparation for industry-recognized certification exams. They also get to participate in internships, job shadowing and industry field trips.
Since the 2022-2023 school year, some District public and public charter students have also been taking career and technical education courses free of charge at the Advanced Technical Center (ATC), located inside the Lemuel Penn Center in Northeast.
At this point, the only course offerings are cybersecurity and nursing for 200 students hailing from across the District.
When it comes to career and technical education for adults, the District has the D.C. Infrastructure Academy, which aims to train residents for in-demand construction, energy and telecommunications jobs. Other adult education programs of this kind include Community College Preparatory Academy Public Charter School, in which students can pursue pathways to certification in healthcare, construction, information technology, Google analytics and administration.
One Institution Strives to Continue Booker T. Washington’s Work
In Northeast, nearly 60 adult students at Four Walls Career and Technical Education Center are embracing the legacy of Booker T. Washington, a Black Reconstruction-era educator who touted the need for entrepreneurship and vocational training.
Less than a week into the New Year, staff members at the Four Walls Career and Technical Education Center conducted an open house. Prospective students on the night of Jan. 3 watched as instructors conducted evening courses for a student body whose ages range from late teens to mid-70s. Enrollees are navigating a program that includes 15 to 19 weeks of the core curricular instruction followed by specialized instruction in electrical wiring, stationary steam engineering, and HVAC construction-maintenance.
Each June, the nine-month construction program culminates with students’ preparation for the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) exam and an end-of-the-year celebration where they meet alumni.
Those who pass the NCCER test acquire industry-recognized credentials that demonstrate knowledge and skills needed to advance in the construction industry.
Edward Pinkard founded Four Walls Career and Technical Education Center in the summer of 2014, shortly after the D.C. Public Charter School Board (DCPCSB) denied the 15-year charter petition for Booker T. Washington Public Charter School.
He said that DCPCSB never provided a clear reason as to why it decided to deny its charter renewal petition.
A DCPCSB news release said that, despite positive testimony from employers and Booker T. Washington PCS staff and alumni, the public charter school failed to meet its charter goals and academic achievement expectations.
Pinkard said he and his colleagues launched Booker T. Washington Public Charter School in 1999 to prepare high school students and adults for vocational careers. Throughout the school’s existence, administrators gave students copies of Washington’s autobiography, “Up from Slavery.”
Pinkard told The Informer that his family personally benefited from Washington’s vision. He recounted a childhood in Alabama where he saw his great-uncle John H. Pinkard’s diploma from Tuskegee University, signed by Washington.
Pinkard’s great-uncle, an 1899 Tuskegee alumnus, studied under George Washington Carver, Pinkard said.
At a time when District parents, community members and officials are embracing the trades as a viable career pathway, Pinkard said he wants to promote Four Walls Career and Technical Education Center as a place where youths and young adults can receive such an education.
“The trades were not open to us in terms of ownership but now we see it’s possible to own it all. It’s a great opportunity,” Pinkard said. “We have engineers with their own company. The opportunities are opening up where people could see it. We have to get people to desire to build their own communities. We find people who share that vision.”
I am a Core Curriculum instructor at Four Wall CTEC, who attended Booker T Washington’s Entrepreneur Business Classes. I share Mr Pinkard’s vision, since leaving Booker T. Washington, I went to college receiving a MBA & Masters in information system. I was involve in the construction trades through my father and now I am giving back too help others.